UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps said on Friday that the government will try to make international travel as affordable as possible for the UK public by cutting down the cost of COVID-19 tests once current restrictions on non-essential travels abroad are lifted
LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th April, 2021) UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps said on Friday that the government will try to make international travel as affordable as possible for the UK public by cutting down the cost of COVID-19 tests once current restrictions on non-essential travels abroad are lifted.
"I am undertaking today to drive down the costs of those tests and looking at some innovative things we could do," Shapps told Sky news broadcaster.
According to the minister, one of the options could be that the government provide the lateral flow tests people need to take before returning to the UK, and drive down the costs of the more expensive PCR tests by working with the private sector.
The UK Global Taskforce, an advisory body of the government, unveiled on Friday a new approach to safely restart international travel that includes a new traffic light system to categorize countries and the introduction of travel certification.
The system used four main factors to categorize countries based on risk alongside the restrictions required for travel, namely the percentage of the vaccinated population, the rate of infection, the prevalence of variants of concern, and the country's access to reliable scientific data and genomic sequencing.
The so-called traffic light system prescribes three main categories of arrivals, and "restrictions for inbound passengers, such as 10-day managed quarantine, home quarantine, and stringent testing will remain in place - but will apply to people differently depending on whether the destination visited is categorised as 'green', 'amber' or 'red'."
Green arrivals will need to take a pre-departure test as well as a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on or before day two of their arrival back into the UK. They will not be quarantined upon arrival in the UK in case of negative tests. Amber arrivals will need to quarantine for 10 days and take a pre-departure test, and two PCR tests on days two and eight upon arrival. Red travelers will be subject to restrictions currently in place for red list countries which include a 10-day stay in a managed quarantine hotel and the same testing as for the amber group.
The UK travel industry has expressed concern about the government's testing requirements, warning that only holidaymakers who could pay around 120 Pounds ($164) for a PCR test per person would be able to travel abroad.
The UK government expects international travel to resume from May 17 at the earliest when passengers will no longer be required to prove they have a valid reason to leave the country.
